This invention pertains to heat lamps, and, more particularly, to a lamp control assembly and process for warming food.
There are many types of restaurants, such as formal restaurants, informal restaurants, fast food restaurants, and cafeterias. In formal restaurants, customers are seated at tables with table cloths and napkins and may be waited upon by waiters in bow ties or waitresses in cocktail dresses. Customer attire in formal restaurants often includes ties, jackets, and dresses. At informal restaurants, customers are seated at tables which often have paper napkins and no table cloths and are usually waited upon by waitresses. The waitresses and customer attire is generally informal. Informal restaurants may also have a take out or carry out section for ordering and picking up food which is to be eaten out of the restaurant. In fast food restaurants, orders are placed from a car in a drive-in window or at a counter inside the fast food restaurant. There are no waiters or waitresses that wait on tables in fast food restaurants. In cafeterias, customers selects their food from counters, bins, or the like containing different selections of food and beverages. The customers place their food on trays and carry their trays to tables where they can eat their food. There are usually no waiters or waitresses in cafeterias.
Restaurants can become very busy during lunch, dinner and/or breakfast. Cooked food which is placed on the counter can become cold without a heat lamp, heating element, or other means to keep the food warm, especially if the waitresses or waiters are attending other tables or otherwise too busy to immediately serve the hot cooked food to their customers.
In many restaurants, cooked food is kept warm with heat lamps or heating elements until the food is served to the customers by waiters or waitresses. There are many types of heat lamps. Generally, one or more heat lamps or heating elements are mounted above a counter where plates of hot cooked food are placed. In the past, the heat lamps of conventional food warming circuits have been kept on continuously during all hours of service of the restaurant. This practice substantially decreases the life of the lamps (bulbs) and wastes electricity. Furthermore, it can be expensive to the restaurant and distractive to customers, especially when there is no food on the counter to be kept warm. Also, repeated replacement of bulbs is burdensome, inconvenient, time-consuming, and uneconomical.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved food warming circuit and process which overcomes most, if not all, of the above problems.